Various roller skate assemblies have been manufactured and used in the past which have pairs of wheels mounted fore and aft on a foot support platform. In most instances, the front wheel support structure has been formed so that the front wheels can pivot to cause a change of direction of movement of the skate. The pivoting of the front wheels usually is caused by a rotation of the wearer's foot so as to tilt the foot support platform about its longitudinal axis. The degree of rotation of the front wheels away from their alignment with the length of the foot support platform depended, primarily, upon the degree of tilt of the foot as opposed to the amount of weight applied to the wheels in combination with the tilt, and once the front wheel structure of the prior art skates was fabricated the pivoting effect of the front wheels of the skate could not be varied by the wearer, as by adjusting some of the components of the skate. As a result, the wearer was required to depend entirely upon the manner in which the skate was manufactured for the performance characteristics provided by the skate.
In recent years roller skates have been fabricated with pairs of hemispherical rollers mounted in back-to-back relationship at the front and rear portions of the skate so that the wearer is able to tilt or roll his foot from one side to the other as when leaning into a turn when skating. The split hemispherical rollers thus similated an ice skating sensation for the skater. While the split hemispherical rollers represent an improvement over the earlier prior art wheels, a successful combination of a pivotable wheel skate and hemispherical split wheel skate has never been provided, wherein the skater can both lean into his turn and have his skate gradually change direction with him by having the front rollers pivot into the turn. Also, the prior art does not appear to disclose a roller skate that has a practical adjustment feature that permits the skater to vary the pivoting of the front wheels of the skate, so that with one adjustment the skater can make a tight turn with his skates by tilting his feet, and with another adjustment the skater can make a more shallow turn with the same tilt of his feet.